1. Field of the Invention
Panel trucks, vans and buses are particularly suitable for transporting wheelchair bound persons, inasmuch as they can be modified to provide wider door access and entrance platforms so that the person in a chair may propel himself into the vehicle. Vans further provide more floor space, as they are freer of fixed seating.
It is necessary in transporting wheelchair bound persons, that special consideration be given to positively locking the chairs against inertial movement caused by changes in vehicular velocity.
The present arrangement discloses locking means for wheelchairs against movement within a vehicle without modifying the wheelchair in anyway.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,265 to Lyder discloses a vertical shaft attached to the wheelchair and adapted to be threaded into a socket on the floor of the vehicle.
The patent to Mitchell U.S. Pat No. 2,558,056 discloses a slotted raised platform to which is secured a rack member having hook members to engage the wheels of a cot in an ambulance.
In the present invention, the locking means is carried solely by the vehicle and does not provide an encumbrance to the wheelchair in normal use as it might in Lyder. Further, it allows the user to be self-sufficient which is obviously not the case in Mitchell.